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Launchpad Meetups are events organised to establish new startup-corporate connections. The Meetups are one of the concrete outcomes of what is becoming the biggest Corporate Launchpad Network in Europe.

1 June 2016

For the 3rd edition of Launchpad Meetups, which took place on 23-25 May 2016, StartupAmsterdam collaborated once more with The Next Web and EY, increasing the reach in both the startup and corporate world. In just three days, 39 participating corporates were connected to some 150 startups.

Not your average pitch competition

A major strength of Launchpad Meetups is that meaningful connections between corporates and startups are made regarding real world innovation needs. The format is different from a usual pitch competition in several ways:

At a Launchpad Meetup the startups pitch in relation to a current innovation challenge of the corporate. They can instantly add value to the corporate if their solution fits the challenge. In most cases, resources have already been assigned by the corporate to conquer the particular challenge, making collaboration after a Launchpad Meetup a likely option.

Startups get the opportunity to tailor their pitch to the corporate and its challenge rather than pitching on a general theme. The application and selection of startups are based on this defined challenge. By doing research into the particular corporate process structures, the cause of the challenge and the innovation goals, the entrepreneur can deliver a spot-on pitch at the Launchpad Meetup, presenting potential next steps for collaboration.

For corporates, Launchpad Meetups are a unique opportunity to scout potential collaboration with startups. Organising a Launchpad Meetup at the office makes it easy to engage colleagues, inspire them on innovation and a more lean way of working. It is a low-threshold method to take first steps towards collaboration with startups.

A glimpse of this edition’s participants

There was great diversity in both corporate and startup participants during the 3rd Launchpad Meetup. On the corporate side diverse challenges were set, from measuring food intake per individual at Ahold, to Dell looking for a standardisation of the Internet of Things, and Vopak wanting to replace an operator on the dock. In the more creative side of corporates were first-timer Paradiso, Amsterdam’s pop temple, and Disney wanting to better structure their creative assets. Be it big data, IoT, e-commerce, FinTech, MediaTech, Wellbeing, Transport or Logistics, the Launchpad Meetups covered all these topics and more.

On the startup side, there were diverse participants as well. From startups founded only last year, such as Tic Tag (a new interface technology connecting offline smartphones to online services) or Elymentz (an app that executes conference calls and translates messages in real-time), to well-established million-dollar scale-ups such as big data specialist Elastic. The Launchpad Meetups are also becoming increasingly popular with international startups. Transavia’s Meetup, for example, featured participants from four different countries: TheMotion (Spain), MyLike (Germany), Xpenditure (Belgium) and our very own 3Dabout.me (Amsterdam).

We thank you all

We would like to thank all participating corporates and startups and look forward to sharing the success stories of this edition, as well as following the established collaborations from earlier Launchpad Meetups, such as EY and Declaree, Oracle and 904 Labs, Arcadis and Linked Locked.

Sign up for the next edition of Launchpad Meetups!

Don’t miss your chance to join the next edition! The next edition of Launchpad Meetups will be announced soon so keep an eye on our website and sign up for our newsletter.